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Four Silver Bullet questions about test scores
There have been some disparaging comments about test scores recently, and of course they are by no means the be-all and end-all. Here’s an excerpt (p. 70) from an interesting book, The Good School: How smart parents get their kids the education they deserve, by Peg Tyre, which outlines what the author calls “the four Silver Bullet questions that test designers say you should ask when you are looking at test scores”.
“Ask to see scores broken out by subgroups. A mean test score - even if it is rising - means almost nothing. Really. Nobody who knows statistics would find a mean score for an entire grade of students meaningful.
“Make sure you look at long-term trends. A one-year test score change, even when it is going up, also means next to nothing.
“Scores (not means) for subgroups still rising over the long term? Great. Now it is time to find out what’s creating that upward trend. Ask the principal these two questions: what are the three decisions that you’ve made in the last two years in an effort to impact student achievement in your school? What are the results?
“Still want to get a better measure of the school? Ask this: What is your intervention plan for the lower-quartile students - the bottom of the class? And how are you progressing with that plan? Even if your kids are not in the lowest quartile, this matters to you. If the school has a solid plan for hard-to-teach kids, they are likely to have a solid plan for your kid, too.”